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The agreement, which was struck just two hours before the final deadline for Netanyahu to cobble together a ruling government, paves the way for a narrow, 61-seat coalition. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling Likud faction on Wednesday reached an agreement with the religious Zionist Bayit Yehudi on the formation of a rightist coalition, Israel Radio reported. The agreement, which was struck just two hours before the final deadline for Netanyahu to cobble together a ruling government, paves the way for a narrow, 61-seat coalition. By law, if Netanyahu failed to form a government by midnight on Wednesday, President Reuven Rivlin...

Yachad is over the threshold and in the Knesset, Bayit Yehudi got 6.13% of the vote, Likud got near 25%, Avoda (Labor) just 18%, Yesh Atid a paltry 8 point something.

Knesset Land of Israel Caucus heads Yariv Levin (Likud Beytenu) and Orit Struck (Bayit Yehudi) expressed regret on Wednesday that a recording of the parliamentary group’s meeting with US Ambassador Dan Shapiro was leaked to the press. The meeting, which took place on Tuesday, was closed to the press and was described by attendees as “charged,” after MKs used harsh language in discussions of imprisoned Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard’s treatment and accused the US of bias against Israel in talks with Palestinians. Shapiro spoke to Levin and Struck, saying that he was upset that the meeting was recorded. The two...

Bayit Yehudi chairman and Economy Minister Naftali Bennett dismissed on Tuesday the possibility of swapping land with the Palestinians for peace or security. The ongoing Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations "have only brought us terror," Bennett said at an Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) conference. He further warned that the establishment of an independent Palestinian state under any future peace deal will lead to terror. The Palestinian children who were born at the time the 1993 Oslo accord was agreed upon are now 21 and have grown up on incitement, he said. "No piece of paper will change this." Bennett turned...

Bayit Yehudi will not remain in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's government if it officially adopts peace proposals presented by US Secretary of State John Kerry, even if reservations are presented, party leader Naftali Bennett said in closed conversations Wednesday. Ahead of Kerry's visit, Bennett spoke multiple times this week with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Israel's negotiators in diplomatic talks with the Palestinians. He insisted on receiving as much information as possible about America's proposal immediately after Kerry meets with Netanyahu. "Bennett is up to speed and has done his homework," a source close to him said. "He will not...

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni appealed a bill declaring donations to anti-Israel non-governmental organizations from foreign governments no longer exempt from tax, after it was approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday. Eight ministers from Likud, Yisrael Beytenu and Bayit Yehudi approved the bill in the ministerial committee, while Hatnua and Yesh Atid ministers voted against it. The legislation proposed by Bayit Yehudi faction chairwoman Ayelet Shaked and MK Robert Ilatov (Likud Beytenu) amends the Income Tax Law so that NGOs will have to pay 45 percent tax on donations from foreign governments if the organization or members of...

Environmental Protection Minister Amir Peretz (Hatnua) accused the Bayit Yehudi party Sunday of recklessly endangering the “peace process” with the initiative to approve 1,200 housing tenders in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. The decision was announced by Construction and Housing Minister Uri Ariel. "While [Hatnua leader] Minister Tzipi Livni is making extensive efforts to convince the leaders of Europe that we desire peace, and that the matter of borders will only be determined in negotiations between us and the Palestinians, Minister Ariel is busy with an unnecessary provocation and with messages that run counter to the prime minister's decision to renew...

MK Moshe Feiglin, a maverick member of the Likud faction, wrote Tuesday on his Facebook page that the vote for regulation of Bedouin lands in the Negev Monday was a defeat for the Jewish people. “Last night, Likud and Bayit Yehudi handed over the Negev to the Bedouins,” he wrote. “The vote yesterday had nothing to do with the rights of the Bedouins. … The real question on the agenda was—whose land is this! … The nation of Israel has forgotten that this is its land,” Feiglin wrote. Israel has “forgotten that it is the son of the lady and...

Likud Beytenu, the Bayit Yehudi and Yesh Atid reached the final stages of coalition talks Wednesday night, with Bayit Yehudi chairman Naftali Bennett negotiating to break the impasse between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid. After days of arguing over the Education and Interior portfolios, the number of ministries in the government, the Knesset Finance Committee, and changing Hatnua's coalition deal, the parties reached an apparent compromise brokered by Bennett on Monday evening, meeting late at night to iron out the final details. Shai Piron of Yesh Atid will be Education Minister, while the Likud's Gideon...

Rabbi and Member of Knesset Shai Piron (Yesh Atid) confirmed, Sunday, that the Likud party told representatives of Yesh Atid, last week, that their party should enter the government without Habayit Hayehudi because Habayit Hayehudi will work to prevent the uprooting of Jewish communities in Judea and Samarai (Shomron) sought by Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid. .....

Naftali Bennett responded to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's accusation that the Jewish Home party was making coalition negotiations difficult by excluding the hareidi parties. "In the days immediately following the elections, Likud refused to speak with the Jewish Home," said Bennett. "They excluded us. We knew if we sat quietly we would be in the opposition. I spoke with Yair Lapid... that Yesh Atid would not enter the government without the Jewish Home and that the Jewish Home would not enter the government without Yesh Atid."

MK Ayelet Shaked (Bayit Yehudi) said Saturday that the alliance between her party and Yesh Atid is rock solid. "The situation at this moment is that we are going into a government with Yesh Atid," MK Shaked told Channel 10. She added that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had missed the boat for getting Bayit Yehudi to join his coalition independently of Yesh Atid. "If the prime minister had turned to us immediately after the elections, we would have gone in," she said. "Netanyahu had a very clear plan," Shaked said, "to establish a government with Yesh Atid and the hareidim....

MK Orit Strook (Bayit Yehudi) responded to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's hinted attack on her party with a counterattack Saturday night. "The taste of the Likud's mudslinging campaign has not yet dissipated," she wrote on her Facebook page. "It would be proper for Likud to apologize before the religious Zionist settlement enterprise instead of moralizing to it. "Instead of wondering about our Zionist, values-based connection with Yesh Atid, Likud would do better to explain to its voters the justification of joining with Tzipi Livni and Amir Peretz of all people." Prime Minister Netanyahu hinted Saturday that Bayit Yehudi was engaged...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will meet President Shimon Peres Saturday evening and ask him for a two-week extension in which to put together a coalition of parties and form a new government. Peres will grant Netanyahu the two-week extension. If Netanyahu fails to cobble together a coalition within a fortnight, however, he will be in serious trouble. Peres could decide to task someone else with creating a coalition, or new elections could be called. We are, therefore, entering the "money time" of coalition crafting. The reports in two major news sources Friday that Netanyahu's representatives offered Yesh Atid a policy...

Well, the election is history. The results weren’t exactly what we’d have prayed for, nor were they what we expected. The polls showed slightly different results. On the other hand, despite errors similar to those made in 1992, the left-wing dream of a ’mahapach,’ that is a ’revolution,’ a changing of the guard, a total defeat of the ruling prime minister, didn’t happen. The new coalition might not be as ’right’ as the present government, but it won’t be Rabin-Peres – 1992. However, this time around, history was made. For the first time, Hebron has a representative in the Knesset....

According to the near final results of the votes of soldiers, diplomats, and prisoners that were being tallied Thursday morning, Jewish Home will be awarded a 12th Knesset seat, making it the fourth largest faction in the Israeli parliament. The seat will come at the expense of Arab party Ra'am-Ta'al, which goes down to four seats. With the twelfth seat, Bayit Yehudi, the representative party of the National Religious sector, matches the sector's historic record number of Knesset seats, achieved in 1977, when the National Religious Party received 12 Knesset seats.

The head of the Bayit Yehudi, Naftali Bennett, defended the #14 man on the party's Knesset list, Jeremy Gimpel, who came under attack as an extremist in TV's leftist Channel 2 at week's end. "I am proud of Jeremy Gimpel and of my entire list," Bennett told Channel 2's Dana Weiss in a Saturday night interview. The channel's Friday night newscast, a special weekly edition which sums up the week's events, featured an attack on Gimpel by ultra-leftist pundit Amnon Abramovich. Abramovich showed viewers a Youtube video of Gimpel speaking before a Christian group and raising the theoretical possibility that...

Chairman Naftali Bennett and members of Habayit Hayehudi (Jewish Home-New National Religious Party) want to be members of a government led by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, according to a Monday report by the Ha'aretz daily. The newspaper quoted Bennet as saying, "We'll be responsible partners." He made it clear, "We're not coming to explode the government two months after we join it. We're not coming to bring the government for any reason." Bennett said, "As long as there's o decision to give away land, we have no reason to leave the government. On the contrary, we are coming with a...

Rabbi Shai Piron, number two on Yesh Atid's Knesset list and a resident of the Judea and Samaria town of Oranit, clarified his policy stance in regards to a possible two state solution and land swaps in Judea and Samaria an interview on the Knesset Channel, taking time to also attack Bayit Yehudi's Naftali Bennett for what he called a "delusional" plan. During the interview, Rabbi Piron said that a two state solution would be best for both sides, claiming, "There is a solution that speaks about two states for two peoples -- that is the future of the State...

Tzipi Livni, who chairs the Hatnua party, slammed on Wednesday what she termed "the extremists" in her former party, the Likud. Livni, who visited a bar in Tel Aviv, warned that a coalition between these Likud extremists and the Jewish Home would be a threat to Israel. "Extremists are taking over our lives and if we do not stop them today - we'll end up in a situation that is dangerous for Israel," Livni said. "These extremists are now in the Likud in the form of (Moshe) Feiglin, (Tzipi) Hotovely, (Yariv) Levin and others - they are in the same...